Hello, My name is Donald Braden. Founder of the Full Slate Project. Due to personal life changes, I have returned to the battleground state of Ohio after 14 years in Portland Oregon. Through my work with the Full Slate Project, I have been a great deal of work with Virginia House of Delegates candidates and have done posts here on Kos about every single Republican-held district in that state.
One of the great resources that gave me encouragement when I first started writing about Virginia politics is VirginiaKos group here on the site. It has been great to be invited to contribute there. I am now turning my attention to next year, starting with my home state of Ohio. I immediately checked for an Ohio Kos group. I found a few regional groups, but nothing statewide. With that in mind, I have decided to launch Battleground Ohio as a group here on Daily Kos to focus on all of Ohio Politics.
What is the purpose of the group?
- The top priority is helping more an better Democrats get elected in Ohio. My primary focus with most of my writing will be state legislative races in that regard. I would love writers to join the group and post about local and county candidates, others to post about statewide offices and still others to write up federal races. If you have any interest in covering any of these levels, about Ohio races, please let me know!
- Organizing Ohio Kossaks. Kos is a great resource, if we could organize a team here in Ohio it could prove a critical pivot point to finding great Ohio opportunities that otherwise might be missed without a group focused on Ohio.
- Focus on Democrats. There is plenty of opportunity on Kos to pile on Republicans. They deserve it. Posts on Battleground Ohio should, however, be largely focused on the work Democrats need to do to turn red seats blue. That said, if a local Republican officeholder is caught up in a scandal, takes a bad vote or whatever, this would be the place to share it. I would still encourage even those posts to include content specifically about what Democrats in the area can do to affect the political dynamic in the area as a result.
- Education about Ohio in general terms. Ohio is one of the swingiest swing states there is in Presidential politics. I am sure most people assume the state and local offices are a bit swingy too. Not lately. Educating people about the regions of the state, history and so on is an important piece of work. The remainder of this post will hit on a few educational bits about Ohio’s current political situation for example.
- Other focus and ideas welcome.
Please join this group!
Not restricted to Ohioans as what happens in Ohio impacts most of the country. That said when you request to join let me know where you are located. I would love to keep track of the Ohioans that are a part of the group.
The State of Ohio
Executive Offices
Elections for these executive offices are held every 4 years in off-presidential cycle even years.
- Governor — Republican John Kasich
- Lt Governor — Republican Mary Taylor
- Secretary of State — Republican John Husted
- Attorney General — Republican Mike DeWine
- Treasurer — Republican Josh Mandel
Ohio State Legislature Composition
Both state legislative bodies are controlled by Republicans. There are 99 House of Representative districts in Ohio. There are 33 Senate districts. Elections are held every 2 years in even years for the House. Elections are held every 4 years for the Senate with half the Senate running one cycle, the other half running the next. Also in even years.
Ohio Congressional Delegation
- Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown — next election 2018
- Republican Senator Rob Portman — next election 2022
The House delegation is 16 members strong. 12 Republicans and 4 Democrats. The Democrats only hold seats in the Toledo to Cleveland to Youngstown strecth on the lake and Northeast Ohio (the quintessential rust belt) and in the capital, Columbus (where I live).
Presidential Results
Trump sort of owned Ohio. instead of focusing on the specific results I just want to share the results by county map for every election since 1996.
Trumbull County, the county in the Northeast corner that went from deep blue to light red in 2016 is indicative of what happened across the state.
Once again please join Battleground ohio!
I would love a broad range of writers on this blog group to keep the content fresh and relevant. I will be posting something myself every few days. Once we hit a good number of writers we can begin thinking about organizing work and interests.
Let’s work together to help turn Ohio Blue!